Mars Grasshopper

[dragon]

Well it looks like NASA has a new craft designed for flight on Mars. Would drasticly increase range of the surface that can be explored.

August 8

Mars “Gashopper” Takes Flight

A novel approach to airborne travel on Mars has been demonstrated.

The vehicle is dubbed the Gashopper and taps into the carbon dioxide-rich Martian atmosphere. Using a pump, it stores the gas in liquid form, sending it through a preheated pellet bed. That action transforms the liquid into hot rocket exhaust to produce thrust for a flight vehicle.

Pioneer Astronautics of Lakewood, Colorado has spearheaded the vehicle’s development.

“The flight vehicle could either be a ballistic vehicle…or a winged airplane that would take off and land like a Harrier, then transition to horizontal flight,” said Robert Zubrin, head of the firm. On Mars, a ballistic gashopper would be capable of flights for several miles per hop. A winged aircraft would be capable of chalking up even more distance each flight, he said.

Zubrin is also head of the Mars Society, a public advocacy space group.

After each landing, a small rover could be deployed for local exploration. While it is doing this, the gashopper would refuel from the atmosphere. This would take about a month. The rover would then be recalled, the pellet bed reheated, and the gashopper would fly to a distant landing site to explore again.

“The net result is a system that can fly repeatedly on Mars, conducting numerous aerial surveys and surface exploration at many diverse sites with a single spacecraft,” Zubrin added. Furthermore, unlike surface rovers, he said that the gashopper would not be blocked by terrain obstacles, nor contaminate landing sites with organics from a conventional rocket exhaust

http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html

[fgalkin]

Awesome!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Noble Ire]

He did not dress his link! Heathen!

On topic, that sounds quite interesting, a leap forward in surveying technology (pun, ha!) Hopefully a sign of innavation to come.

[Erik von Nein]

That's badass. I wonder when they can get this thing running?

Oh, and it kind of reminds me of that awful third tremors movie. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about.

[Sharpshooter]

Oh, and it kind of reminds me of that awful third tremors movie. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about.

"Assblasters...sounds like a porno." [insert that wierd little Smiley Uranium-235's been using recently]

It sounds like a neat idea - I just wonder, though, what mechanisms they're going to ue to make sure the thing lands on the side it's supposed to each time. It'd be pretty damn embarrissing if they made their maiden flight, only to discover they landed up-side down and couldn't up-right themselves...